Visionaries
by Angel of Death CSV
Summary: Star Colonel Erik Drummond strikes at Ghost Bear territory when they attack into the Draconis Combine, but the cost of victory may be too high


Prologue 

Star Colonel Erik Drummond would soon be in combat for the first time since his Trial of Possession for the rank he currently held.  As one last strike after the Ghost Bears' incursion into Draconis Combine occupied territory had been repelled, the Ghost Bears would soon be striking at Clan Novacat's new home in the Draconis Combine.  It was a home they had come to during the destruction of Clan Smoke Jaguar, and it was a home that Erik would fight for and die for.

Erik's _Cauldron Born B _was ready for action, having been repaired, repainted, and reloaded long ago by Master Technician Tang, Erik's tech.  Erik preferred the Alternate B configuration of his _Cauldron Born_ because of its longevity on the field of battle.  The twin ER PPCs, paired Large Pulse Lasers, and two medium pulse lasers made for a very efficient killing machine.  On top of that, the Tag equipment that was mounted on the _Cauldron Born_ in that configuration was perfect when combined with the Arrow IV missiles mounted on one of his mechwarrior's _Maddog_.

That is, it would combine well with the _Maddog_ if the code of Zellbriggin were to be broken by the Ghost Bears.  The Novacats would never stray from tradition, but it was guess that because they had joined with the Inner Sphere, and because they were no longer considered a Clan of honor, they Ghost Bears would disregard all of the Clans' established laws.

Erik's Cluster was already preparing for the upcoming battle with the Ghost Bears.  Their preparation took the form of a series of battles between trinaries.  There were four trinaries of mechs and elementals in Erik's Cluster, as well as a trinary of Aerospace fighters.  The mech/elemental trinaries practiced day after day.  Their schedule insured that every trinary fought every other trinary in a number of battles, some following Zellbriggin and some not.  The aerospace assets were also partially in one this.  Each of the three stars of aerospace fighters would battle each other star a number of times, and the one star that was not battling would be lending fire support to one or the other trinary, switching sides constantly so as not to make it uneven.

Chapter 1 

Erik stepped into the Galaxy Commander's office, closing the door behind him.  He was the last of the four Star Colonels to arrive for the briefing.

"Now that everyone is here," the Galaxy Commander began, "we will commence.  The Ghost Bear attack force has arrived in-system, but they have not bid their attacking force yet.  Most recent estimation puts their total strength at two Galaxies, although they will most likely not be bidding nearly that high, seeing as we have only one Galaxy with which to defend this planet.

"I have received information stating that the Ghost Bears are attacking every Novacat guarded system in the Draconis Combine.  We must be prepared to defend this planet against a full-scale attack, in case they do bid their entire force.  I assume preparations for combat are underway, quiaff?"

One by one, the assembled Star Colonels responded with an "Aff" and a report on the progress of their Cluster.  Once each Star Colonel had given a ready report, the Galaxy Commander handed out combat orders to his four Star Colonels.

*                      *                      *                  *                          *

            After the meeting was over, Erik briefed his Cluster with the battle plan.  His Galaxy would be in the main defense force.  Four of the five Clusters would be greeting the Ghost Bear attack wherever they decided to land.  One of the Clusters would be held back as reserve forces to be brought in on a moments notice.

            The Ghost Bears were now only three hours away and their landing zone had already been projected.  Erik's Cluster was now mounting their mechs in preparation for the trek to the Ghost Bear LZ.  Erik's Cluster was well prepared for combat, and they needed to be.  Having not heard from the Ghost Bears to bid for the planet, it could only be assumed that it was an all out attack, and the Ghost Bears had dropped the usual ritual rules of combat.

            Erik's _Cauldron Born B_ finished its start-up procedure and Erik proceeded out of the mechbay in perfect formation with the rest of his star.  With the five mechs of his command star, Erik had his people in a V formation, with himself at point.

After a long uneventful march to the Ghost Bear LZ, the four Clusters set up around the LZ, half encircling it.  They all took cover behind a number of hills or trees.  They still had a half hour to wait before the Ghost Bears' arrival.

Chapter 2 

It was much more than a half an hour.  The Novacats' twin warships had intercepted the Ghost Bears' Dropship fleet.  The Ghost Bears had brought only one Warship with them in their attack, and it was no match for the Novacats' two.  The Ghost Bear Dropships had been forced to turn and defend themselves.  It was now an all out battle, with countless Ghost Bear dropships and aerospace fighters duking it out with the Novacats' twin warships and aerospace assets.

The Galaxy Commander had received word that fifteen dropships, carrying approximately one of the Ghost Bear galaxies had fled the fight and was now inbound.  It was not long before the Novacats could see fifteen dropships with the six-paw symbol of the Ghost Bears falling from the sky.  It was also not long before the dropships began firing at the surface of the planet, and more specifically, at the Novacat mechs.

A total of two trinaries of warriors fell under the dropships' barrages.  The Novacats managed to claim almost that many victims, having destroyed a dropship before it landed.  Once the fourteen remaining dropships had landed, the Ghost Bears began pouring out of the dropships.  The Novacats combined fire to take out almost two trinaries as they disembarked.  The code of Zellbriggin had been broken the second the Ghost Bear dropships had fired at the Novacat mechs.  The Bears kept coming, and soon their entire force was overwhelming the Novacats' centerline.  The flanks we being pulled back.  They would regroup one kilometer behind the mainline and then reinforce it, hitting with the two clusters that currently had the flanks.

Erik was busy fighting off a Ghost Bear _Gargoyle_.  The enemy mech was hitting him with its autocannons and lasers.  Erik returned with his twin ER PPCs, scorching a large crater in the larger mech's armor.  He also got a lock with his Target Acquisition Gear, and it was not long before missiles from Erik's Starmate were raining down on the Assault mech.  Not even a clan mech could withstand the beating it was taking, and the _Gargoyle_ collapsed.  Erik worked his controls, turning his mech to face a new opponent, a _Summoner_.  The enemy mech hit first, with PPC and autocannon.  Erik's mech easily withstood the attack, and fought back with a steady barrage of pulse lasers, large and medium tied into the same circuit.  The _Summoner_'s armor was torn and shredded by the constant attack, but Erik felt the consequences of it in his cockpit, as his heat levels rose and he began gasping for breath.

He ceased firing his pulse lasers as his heat began approaching critical levels.  He mashed down on the override, and let his advanced clan heat sinks do their magic.  A few seconds later, once the enemy pilot had regained his balance, Erik felt another impact, this time it was the LRMs, followed closely by a long stream of depleted uranium shells that shredded Erik's armor, but found no breach.  Erik fought back with one of his ER PPCs, and got lucky as the attack struck home, melting through the enemy mech's reactor.  The clan heavy mech simply ceased to exist right before his eyes.

Erik turned to face a new target, but his turn was cut short, as four ER PPCs tore straight through his left arm, tearing it off at the shoulder, and putting his _Cauldron Born_ on its side.  Erik worked his arm's controls and managed to get off a shot with his remaining ER PPC as he worked his mech to its feet.  As he got up, he finished his initial turn and found a _Warhawk_ just where it was supposed to be.  The mechs heat levels had still not returned to normal after the massive drain on the fusion reactor caused by firing all four ER PPCs simultaneously.  Erik took advantage of the situation, firing all four of his pulse lasers.

To his surprise, the giant mech simply toppled over under the attack.  Then he realized why.  The ER PPC shot had taken a lucky course and struck the Assault mech's cockpit.  The battle continued, and it was a losing battle.  After ten more minutes, the two flanker clusters finally arrived.  They completely destroyed the Ghost Bear line, but they Bears quickly recovered.  Using their superior numbers, they soon pushed back the Novacats once more.

**Chapter 3**

The Galaxy Commander ordered the Novacats to begin falling back, and he split off one cluster toward the flanks.  He also split off two trinaries to flank around to the rear of the Ghost Bears.  He called up the remaining cluster of reinforcements at the base as well.  As the one Novacat force pulled back, Erik was shocked at the ignorance of the Ghost Bear's leader at falling for the bait.  He probably figured his numbers would protect him.  And they did until the reserve cluster arrived.  The Ghost Bear's forces were pushed back by the fresh new arrivals, and that was when the Galaxy commander ordered the flanks to close in.  The Ghost Bears were surrounded on three sides, and were soon crushed.  One Cluster was able to break out the opening on the forth side, but their retreat was cut short by the two trinaries of rear flankers, who had waited patiently for the Ghost Bear retreat.

The two trinaries was enough to hold the Bear back until the main Novacat body could arrive.  The remaining Novacats made short work of the Ghost Bear Cluster, however two stars were able to escape back to their dropships.  The Novacats did not dare to pursue them that far because the dropships' firepower would cripple them.  The Ghost Bears had been soundly defeated and were pulling out after several long hours of brutal fighting.

Erik soon had his _Cauldron Born B_ back in the mechbay and ready for his tech to begin working on.  Once he had dismounted, he went to the barracks and got out of his coolant vest, shorts and boots.  After an hour long debriefing on the battle, he returned to the Barracks to get some sleep.  After a long day in his mech's cockpit, he soon fell asleep.

During his few hours of slumber, Erik had a dream.  In the dream, he saw a white bear, charging out of its cave.  It was charging at a large cat, but as it got closer, its eyes slowly looked behind the cat.  The bear then ran right past the cat and continued running.  It soon found what appeared to be a dragon.  The bear quickly attacked the dragon, biting and clawing it, but not killing it.  The bear continued running.  It now appeared to be after food, but as it got closer to its food, it was intercepted by a snake.  They apparently both wanted the same meal, and began to fight.  The fight raged for what seemed like only a few minutes.

While the battle between snake and bear raged on, the Cat went sniffing into the Bear's cave, searching for food, and finding little scraps here and there.  Then Erik was awakened from his dream by a message from the main communications center at the base.

Chapter 4 

"Yes?" Erik answered, still somewhat drowsy.

"Star Colonel, the Galaxy Commander has called a meeting." Replied the technician on the other end.

"About what?"

"The Ghost Bears have jumped deeper into Draconis occupied territory."

"Understood."  As Erik rose from his bed, he recalled his dream.  He checked his chronometer just as he left.  He had slept for three hours.  While he was moving through the halls on his way to the briefing room, he pondered what significance the dream held.  It was clear that the bear symbolized the Ghost Bear.  He was able to piece together that the Cat might symbolize his own Novacat clan.  The dragon was obviously the Draconis Combine, meaning that the Combine was about to be dealt a number of losses.  But what could the food and the snake symbolize?  And why did the cat go into the bear's cave?

Some of his questions were soon answered as he entered the briefing room, still making sense of his dream.  Dreams of this sort, visions, were not uncommon among the Novacat warriors.  All the warriors in the Clan had visions, however it is still a dream and takes time to make sense of.  He soon made sense of more of the dream.

"As you may already know," the Galaxy Commander began, "when the Ghost Bears left this system, they linked up with other retreating Ghost Bears and jumped deep into Combine territory.  This new wave of attacks has already claimed two Combine planets.  Their pattern of attacks is somewhat confusing, however.  They have simple bypassed Luthien, and are continuing on.  Orders have come in directly from the Khan ordering all available Novacat forces to attack into Ghost Bear space.  If they want to take Combine planets, they will lose their own.  I am leaving one cluster here as garrison, the rest of us will be attacking Monfield."

Erik then spoke up, "Which cluster will remain behind."

"The 457th Battle cluster, that means your warriors, Star Colonel Freidman."  Erik breathed a sigh of relief; his unit would be a part of the attack on the Bears.

Chapter 5 

Monfield had been left virtually defenseless.  The only reason they would do that is if their target was of the utmost importance, but Erik still could not place it.  He was brought of out his thoughts as a Gauss slug from a Ghost Bear _Shadowcat_ struck him on the left torso, crushing half a ton of armor into scrap.  Erik hit back with both of his ER PPCs, gasping for air as the temperature in his cockpit rose another five degrees.  The PPCs did their job though, both striking the _Shadowcat_ at the apex of its jump.  By the time the enemy medium began its decent it was spinning, and ended up hitting the ground on its side, crushing its arm into its torso, destroying its gauss rifle and one of its medium lasers.  The mech's pilot was no doubt shaken, as the mech did not move for ten long seconds.

As it began to stir, trying to get up, Erik hit again, this time with a full barrage of pulse lasers.  The energy darts lashed out and hit the damaged torso, digging through, and cutting out the other side.  The gutted mech never got up.  Erik's command trinary had taken only light damage in this skirmish, and there was only one star of Bears left, one star out of the full trinary that had garrisoned this planet.  The Galaxy commander had bid Erik's trinary for the attack.  It was then that Erik's Trinary suffered its first losses as three of his mechs lost their one on one duels.  Erik quickly stepped in to engage one of the three mechs.  Not intending to lose any more warriors in this fight, Erik took the biggest opponent for himself, a seventy-five ton _Timberwolf_.

Erik struck first, with his blistering array of pulse lasers, melting and boiling a full two tons of armor off the enemy heavy mech's torso.  He then added his ER PPCs in a one-two punch, boiling another two tons off the enemy's torso.  Erik's mech had had time to cool off before this engagement, and his heat levels remained tolerable.  The _Timberwolf_ unleashed its own fiery revenge, letting loose a full salvo of missiles.  Forty deadly warheads arched over the battlefield and curled in toward Erik.  He switched on his AMS, which chewed up half the missiles, and another eight missed.  The remaining twelve warheads burned tiny craters into Erik's armor.  Erik cycled another barrage from his pulse lasers, and then another.  His heat levels were turning critical, but he was still satisfied, and his lasers tore into the enemy mech's innards and struck at its fusion reactor.

Erik watched the infrared readings on the _Timberwolf_ spike.  Risking a reactor overload, the enemy pilot fired his twin large lasers, burning a ton and a half of armor from Erik's torso, but not finding any vitals.  A single PPC from Erik's right arm completely cored the seventy-five ton mech, sending it up in a ball of oranges, yellows, and blues.

It was not long before Monfield was secure.  Only hours after the fight was over, Erik's cluster was off-planet and heading toward the system's Nadir jump point.  In two days they had jumped into a new system and were detaching dropships to invade Skylight.  This time their whole Galaxy, the four clusters that they had brought, would be participating in the fight.  The Ghost Bears were defending with an equal four clusters.

Chapter 6 

The fight for Skylight was not going well.  Erik's Cluster had sustained heavy losses, and only a fraction of his command trinary remained.  Reinforced with what was left from his other three trinaries, there were a total of fourteen mechs left to his command.  Overall, the Ghost Bears had been cut in half, with only two clusters remaining.  The Novacats were all but destroyed.  All they had left was four trinaries, one from each cluster.

Erik fired his gauss rifle at a charging _Warhawk_ omni-mech.  The incoming 85-ton war machine reeled as the nickel-iron slug shattered sheets of armor off of its torso, but continued its forward run.  Erik added his LB5-X Autocannon to his attack.  The massive shotgun unleashed a full salvo of depleted uranium shells, spraying the assault mech with sub munitions.  Again the assault mech shrugged off the attack and continued its charge, this time returning fire with its four ER PPCs.

Erik's _Cauldron-Born_ was tough, but not that tough, as his 65-ton omni-mech lost its footing under the lethal barrage of charged particles.  As his mech toppled onto its back, Erik worked the control stick to keep his lock on the enemy mech, twisting his mech's arms down and firing off every weapon at his disposal.  His arm mounted autocannon and gauss rifle, as well as the torso mounted ER Medium Laser, his home, chewing up three tons of armor in a long scar across the torso.  The SRM2 and LRM10 Launchers hurled missiles and smoke at the _Warhawk_, mangling even more armor with their explosions.

His brutal assault on the assault mech threw it off balance long enough for his mech to regain its footing, and Erik began his own charge at the enemy war machine.  As his mech glided forward toward his opponent, Erik brought his _Cauldron-Born_'s right arm back, ready to punch the barrel of his gauss rifle through the Ferro-glass shield of the _Warhawk_.

As he was about to finish off his opponent, Erik's mech was stopped in its place by a full barrage of six ER Large Lasers from a Supernova, which Erik quickly identified as the Ghost Bears' Galaxy Commander.  With Zellbriggin broken, Erik's entire star opened up on the two assault mechs.  Erik finished off his original opponent, the _Warhawk_ with another well placed gauss slug, striking at its reactor shield and forcing a full shut down.  The _Supernova_ collapsed under combined fire from the other four mechs of Erik's command star, a _Maddog_'s forty LRMs combined with another forty from a _Timberwolf_, another forty from a _Summoner_ _Alternate A_, and twin ER PPCs from a _Novacat_.  With the _Supernova_ on the ground, severely damaged, Erik's star combined laser fire against a Ghost Bear _Turkina_, a set of four pulse lasers from the _Maddog_, the paired Large and Medium Lasers of the _Timberwolf_, the _Summoner_'s broad array of medium and small lasers, Erik's Medium Laser, and the trio of ER Large Lasers from the _Novacat_.

Chapter 7 

Erik turned back to face the _Supernova_ as it was working its way back to its feet.  With all the damage it had sustained, it took only several rounds from his autocannon to cripple its gyro for good.  At that point, the other two mechs of the Ghost Bear Alpha Star arrived, and Erik called for a single combat fight with a _Marauder IIC_.  It was a second line clan mech, modeled off an Inner Sphere design, but it mounted three ER PPCs and Erik was not about to be fooled by its second line designation.  The rest of his star broke up, two of them working on the other Alpha Star warrior, who piloted a _Warhammer IIC_, and the other two moved off the find new targets.

Before the _Marauder IIC_ pilot was able to get off a shot, Erik fired his gauss rifle and followed it closely with a trio of autocannon shells.  The 85-ton enemy mech was kept off balance, but not severely damaged by the attack, and managed to get off a counter attack of its own, firing all three ER PPCs in one volley.  Erik's _Cauldron Born_'s low profile saved it from two of the ER PPCs, which missed high by mere centimeters.  The other ER PPC hit home on the 65-ton mechs torso and more than a ton of armor was boiled off, leaving only a paper-thin layer of armor covering the parts of his torso which were not already breached.

Erik returned fire with a salvo from each missile launcher.  The missiles soared in and wreaked havoc on the assault mech.  One of the SRMs struck the Ferro-glass shield protecting the cockpit on the 85-ton monster, and he could see the severely dazed pilot lose control of his mech as it plummeted to the ground.  When the smoke from the explosions cleared, Erik saw that the pilot was a little more than dazed.  A number of holes had been cut in the cockpit armor, and the pilot was out cold with multiple burns.

Despite his Star's recent killing streak, the battle was still not going well, and Erik's Commander ordered an all out withdraw.  The retreat was anything but organized, and Erik soon found himself alone being pursued by a _Maddog_ and a _Summoner_.  He managed to dodge their attacks and reach the relative safety of a forest, but his attackers followed.  With all the trees, animals, and rocks in the forest to dampen out their infrared and magnetic scanners, they had to move slowly and carefully, searching with only their eyes.  Erik moved about a kilometer into the forest and dumped all of his SRM ammo, making sure that he kept the warheads active.  He had had 96 short-range missiles left, and had dumped every last one of them.  Knowing that the enemy mechs would be close behind, he moved about two hundred meters deeper into the forest and powered down his reactor just enough to keep his radar online.

After a short wait, he spotted the enemy mechs walking through the forest, searching for him.  _They should not have to wait very long to find me now_, he thought.  As they moved toward the spot where he had dumped his ammo, Erik placed his crosshair over the ammo pile, and kept one hand on the trigger, one hand on the start-up button.  The _Summoner_ was now only two meters from the pile, and Erik set his plan into motion, powering his mech up and hitting the pile with his medium laser, setting off the ammunition, and creating a massive explosion which engulfed the 70-ton mech's left side.  Almost at the same instant, ten long-range missiles left his shoulder-rack and ate away at the _Maddog_'s torso.  With his opponent still stunned from his comrade's destruction and the missiles striking his mech, Erik fired his gauss rifle, autocannon, and medium laser, chewing through the 60-ton _Maddog_'s remaining armor and mangling internals.

The enemy mechwarrior finally regained his wits, firing his forty LRMs at Erik.  Some of them hit trees and others were chewed up by his AMS, but ten of the missiles hit home, striking at Erik's reactor.  Erik gasped for air as the temperature in his cockpit rose almost ten degrees.  He managed to fire off his gauss rifle and autocannon, avoiding the missiles and medium laser because of his heat levels.  His attack put the _Maddog_ out of the fight, and he looked over to see his handiwork.  The _Summoner_ had been completely crippled.  Only its upper right torso, shoulder, and arm remained, which included the cockpit.  He punched the zoom on his reticle and found that the pilot was a goner.  The violent explosion had thrown everything in the cockpit around to create a look of complete disorder and chaos, and the pilot was just lying there with a fragment of metal protruding from his head.

Chapter 8 

The Ghost Bear Galaxy Commander was locked in battle, his _Vapor_ _Eagle_ pitted against a Spheroid _Vindicator_.  The pilot was good, there was no doubting that, but he would not let himself be bested by a freebirth.  The Spheroid pilot fired his PPC again.  The charged particles scored a direct hit on his 55-ton mech's torso, incinerating a ton of ammo in its path.

The Galaxy Commander was about to return fire when he heard a voice in his neurohelmet, "Galaxy Commander."

"I am busy!" he replied, angry at the interruption.  He fired off his full array of lasers before a response came through.

"Understood sir.  I just wanted to inform you that we have lost Skylight."

"What!  Stravag!  How could that fool have lost Skylight!  His last report put their force at twice their strength.  I swear if that Surat Galaxy Commander survived that fight he will not survive when I see him in a Circle of Equals."

The technician on the other end intelligently remained silent, knowing his commanders temper very well.  In his anger, the Galaxy Commander forgot about the communications tech and continued his fight, although he had lost ground during the conversation.  His autocannon was good, but he still had all his lasers, and he made sure that the _Vindicator_ knew it, firing every last one of them.

Armor bubbled and boiled into pools that flowed down the enemy mech, forming a new pool on the ground.  The pilot of the _Vindicator_ had managed to get his mech close in and fired his PPC at point blank.  More armor poured from his _Vapor Eagle_'s torso, and that was not the last of the attack.  The Particle Projection Cannon was followed closely by the _Vindicator_'s armor, which punched a hole straight through his _Vapor Eagle_'s gyroscope before he could trigger his jump jets.  As the _Vindicator_ drew its arm back, the Galaxy Commander's mech fell backwards, having no way to keep itself upright.

"FREEBIRTH!" the Galaxy Commander exclaimed, pounding the control board endlessly with his fists in a mad rage at his defeat.

        *                         *                     *                        *                          *                

Despite their Galaxy Commander's fall, the Ghost Bears had won the day, and his mech was soon repaired.  It was not long before they were bound for their Invader-Class Jumpship at the Nadir jump point of the system's sun.  They were headed for Dieron, their final stop on their way to Terra, once that was secured from the hands of the Spheroid Blakists, Terra would be ripe for the picking, and the Ghost Bears would rule all the clans as the IlClan.

Chapter 9 

The report came to Erik that the Ghost Bears were striking at Dieron.  It was then that he realized the meaning of his vision, and it was not good.  His joy at the victory over the Ghost Bears diminished when he realized it was irrelevant.  The Ghost Bears did not care whether they lost a few planets or even their entire occupational zone if it meant taking Terra.  The food must have symbolized Terra.  Then he remembered the report about the Steel Vipers also moving on Dieron, and their role in his vision now revealed itself.  They would meet on Dieron and fight to the last Mechwarrior for it in order to claim the right to attack Terra once and for all.  He set off for once to the Galaxy Commander's office to tell him of his vision and its meaning.

He walked through a set of corridors and finally arrived at the Galaxy Commander's door.  He knocked on the door and heard a, "Come in."  He opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind him.

"Star Colonel."

"Galaxy Commander."

"What can I do for you?"

"Galaxy Commander, I have had a vision.  It happened several months ago, and leads me to believe that our attacks on the Ghost Bear Occupation Zone is pointless."

"Go on."

"The Ghost Bears are attacking Dieron, their next move is clearly Terra.  On top of this, the Steel Vipers are attacking Dieron, and they are no doubt moving on Terra as well."

The Galaxy Commander remained impassive, trying to conceal his disappointment at his failure to see what was going on.

"Very well, Erik," the Galaxy Commander responded, omitting Erik's rank and Bloodname in a sudden anger that his subordinate had had to point this fact out to him, "I will pass on this information."

Chapter 10 

As the Ghost Bear Warship came out of its jump to the Dieron system, Ghost Bear Khan Bjorn Jorgensson yelled, "Situation Report!"

A technician in the back of the bridge said, "Sir, we have four Steel Viper Warships in system!"

"What!" Khan Jorgensson growled.

Star Admiral Andrew Devon cut in, "Order our three Warships to open fire.  Prepare to detach the dropships for a run in-system.  Launch all Omni-fighters."

"Yes sir."

"One of the Viper Warships is crippled, likely from the fight with a Word of Blake Warship."  The technician added.

*                        *                      *                      *                      *

The Warship battle was still going on, but the Ghost Bear dropships had managed to escape the fight and head planet-ward carrying the five Ghost Bear Galaxies.  Mechwarrior Taylor Bekker was strapped into the cockpit of his _Packhunter_.  As they broke through the atmosphere of Dieron, the dropship bay doors began opening, preparing for a HALO drop of all the onboard mechs and elementals.

As the doors finished opening up, the mechs were dropped.  Taylor could feel his stomach rise into his throat as he began to fall with his mech.  His mech entered freefall and his stomach sank back into position.  After 90 seconds in freefall, his mechs jump cradle fired.  He could feel his mech's fall slowing.  It was several minutes before he actually touched down, and there were no enemies in sight to greet him.

The Steel Vipers had apparently nearly wiped out the Word of Blake Regiments, and were moving in for the kill.  By the time the Ghost Bears got there, the Word of Blake would be annihilated.  They set off in a "Line Abreast" formation at approximately 100 KPH.  Taylor's Star was a scout star, and his Star Commander, Jessie, piloted the largest mech in the Star, a _Shadowcat_.

As they arrived at the seen of the slaughter, they saw a graveyard of Inner Sphere mechs, with the Steel Viper mechs standing victorious over the corpses.  The Ghost Bears did not wait; his Star Commander ordered the scout lance to engage.  The Steel Vipers did not stray from the Zellbriggin Code, allowing one on one bouts between each Ghost Bear mech and a Steel Viper mech.

Taylor's target was a _Cauldron Born_, and although his 30-ton _Packhunter_ was facing off against a mech more than twice its size, he was fearless and confident in his mech and his skills.

The End

Angel of Death {CSV}


End file.
